Pokémon Krookodile

[ReadTheMango]

Krookodile

Typing: Dark / Ground type

Base Stats: 95 HP | 117 Atk | 80 Def | 65 SpA | 70 SpD | 92 Spe

Abilities: Intimidate | Moxie | Anger Point (H)

[Newly Obtainable Moves]

- Body Slam
- Close Combat
- Darkest Lariat
- Endure
- High Horsepower
- Lash Out
- Mega Kick
- Mega Punch
- Revenge
- Scale Shot
- Scorching Sands
- Skitter Smack

[Notable Moves]

- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Darkest Lariat
- High Horsepower
- Iron Tail
- Beat Up
- Bulk Up
- Stealth Rock
- Substitute
- Taunt
- Toxic


[Pros]

- Great typing, backed by strong STAB moves, a solid attacking stat, and an immunity to both Psychic and Electric type moves, among other neat resistances.
- Decent speed tier, able to outspeed everything up to Adamant Mienshao unboosted. Including some key Pokemon like Excadrill.
- This speed can be further boosted by a choice scarf, which can outspeed threats like Zeraora, Dragapult, and neutral natured +2 Magearna.
- One of the strongest STAB Knock Off's in the metagame.
- Access to Intimidate, which is a fantastic ability to have. Also has access to Moxie which can snowball into a sweep late-game.
- Decent coverage options to match with STAB moves in Close Combat and Stone Edge.
- Access to interesting support options such as Stealth Rock, Taunt and Toxic.

[Cons]

- Weaknesses to common types, including Water type moves, Fairy type moves and Fighting type moves.
- Struggles to break through bulkier Pokemon. Pokemon like Hippowdon, Tangrowth and Corviknight make it difficult to break through teams in some matchups.
- Outsped by a fair portion of the faster offensive metagame
- Not particularly bulky, even considering Intimidate, which makes it difficult to switch in to strong neutral moves

[Potential Movesets]

Scarf Krookodile

Krookodile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate / Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Earthquake / High Horsepower
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge / Darkest Lariat

What I predict to be Krook's best option. Scarf Krookodile was a UU staple last gen and possesses both potent speed and attack. With the addition of Close Combat, Krookodile gains a very solid coverage option, now able to pressure defensive steels resistant to earthquake like Ferrothorn. High Horsepower can be utilised over Earthquake if grassy terrain becomes more common. Knock Off is the crux of this set and should be used early and often to cripple defensive switches.

Offensive Stealth Rock
Krookodile @ Leftovers / Iapapa Berry / Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Taunt / Close Combat / Toxic

Utilising Krookodile's solid offensive stats and intimidate, Krookodile is able to apply pressure for Stealth Rock. Further crippling hazard removal with either Taunt or Toxic and the standard Knock Off. With Sash it can act as a lead on HO, with a higher speed tier than Excadrill. Otherwise utilising intimidate plus either leftovers or iapapa for longevity and multiple uses of Stealth Rock.

Krookodile @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off / Darkest Lariat
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge / Darkest Lariat

A BW staple I used in teambuilding. This thing hits pretty hard. Acts similar to scarf but is outsped by more, and is able to break through defensive checks and switches much better.

 

[SketchUp]

Krookodile @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 60 Atk / 8 Def / 64 SpD / 128 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Earthquake
- Knock Off

This is the set I've been using. I don't think Krookodile is great by any means but with the current lack of offensive ground types it definitely has a niche in the current metagame. I use this early game - not necessarily as a lead - to gain the advantage against slower teams in the hazard game and chip down some walls with the combination of Knock Off removing leftovers and heavy duty boots, Taunt to deny recovery and Rocky Helmet to annoy pokemon such as Zeraora, Excadrill and Marowak. The EVs are to avoid OHKOs/2HKOs from the likes of bulky Kommo-o, Alakazam and Magearna from full health.

Scarf is decent but even against bulky offensive teams it fails to punch holes because it's not the most difficult mon to wall and it can turn into setup bait rather easily. It's great to bait in Wicked Blow from Urshifu and get a few kills with +6 CC / Knock Off but other than that rare occasion I think it's outclassed as a purely offensive mon.

 

[Piplz]

Krookodile @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Close Combat / idk this feels like the most useless move feel free to experiment
- Scale Shot

I've been having a lot of fun running this as a late-game cleaner. What often prevents scarf croc from acting as a true cleaner is the choice lock making it quite easier to wall even if it gets a moxie boost, but this neat new move frees you from that constraint (and also opens up more targets to clean thanks to LO's power difference). Of course you lack the clutch factor of having a scarf for RKing/etc purposes, but having experimented with both I found that this croc pulled its weight more often than the scarf one.

LO recoil and def drops can make you really weak to prio though, so it's far from perfect, but i've been preferring it regardless.

 

[Dreadfury]

Krookodile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Bulldoze
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off

This may seem very similar to the Rocky Helmet set listed above, but it plays out extremely differently. Krookodile offers a handful of extremely important and extremely specific niches to Hyper Offense teams in need of a Rocks setter. It naturally outpaces Lead Excadrill and can pressure Terrakion with Bulldoze. Unlike its immediate competition, though, it has access to Intimidate, Knock Off, and a hugely important defensive typing in Dark:

• Knock Off allows it to cripple threats by removing their items and hits hard coming off of Krook's respectable Attack stat+STAB.
• Intimidate further increases Krookodile's supportive capabilities by reducing an opponent's Attack stat, giving it a bit more longevity against some leads and artificially increasing the bulk of the setup sweepers this set pairs incredibly well with.
• The defensive Dark typing tends to be a bit overlooked, but is nevertheless a crucial niche when facing Screens HO by virtue of giving it an immunity to Grimmsnarl's Prankster Taunt. It will always have a minimum of two turns to drastically limit Grimmsnarl's usefulness to Screens teams, either by Taunting it and preventing it from getting one or both of its Screens up or by removing its Light Clay and cutting the number of turns its future Screens last.